


The Breaking Point

by Vander38



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-27
Updated: 2019-07-27
Packaged: 2020-07-23 09:01:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20005720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vander38/pseuds/Vander38
Summary: Everyone breaks eventually, whether they lash out or break down, it depends on them, and after the Chantry Explosion, everyone is on edge.





	The Breaking Point

Ash rains as I pace like a caged wolf, my coat tails flapping heavily as I pace from side to side.

My staff had been taken by Aveline when she had seen my face, but I didn’t need it.

The air crackles around me, shimmering like a kettle, ice drips from my fingers, the stone cracks under foot in the heat, electric tendrils arc and leap around my body.

I’ve never lost control like this before, not to breaking stone.

I’ve never been this angry or so sad.

I desperately try to claw back some control, trying not to see the dead in my mind, the broken faces of terror, the ruined corpses, the tiny bodies.

“Why Anders?”

I say, voice shaking with rage and hurt

His face is smug, his self satisfied smile on his lips

“You really don’t know?

His voice is mocking, like a teacher to a child who doesn’t quite understand the theory.

I swallow the urge to hit him, to wipe that smile off his lips, to just hurt him beyond begging, to give him a taste of the fear and suffering he has caused.

“But the children Anders, they at least were innocent. Why did they have to die?”

I ask, my voice breaking, half pleading to try and get through his madness, to get through to the damaged young man I once called a friend.

“There are no innocents now, just the right and the dead, they chose their side.”

More of that smugness, that pride, the voice of a man so committed to his cause he can commit any atrocity and blame the victims and believe it.

I snap.

I leap for him, my staff was gone but I had no need for it, I had magic, knives, rubble, my own bare hands.

Aveline grabs me in a great bear hug, dragging me down as I yell a wordless cry of rage.

“No Hawke!”

She yells into my ear, trying to cut through my blood rage.

“Not like this!”

She begs, I hear in her voice what she means, that if this man is to die it must be public, at the hands of the law.

As she wrestles me to the ground Merrill walks past. Her usual happy half skipping gait is gone, just a purposeful stride. Her normally fair face is dark, her smile is gone, replaced with a distant grimace, the beautiful lights in her leaf green eyes gone, replaced with intense honest purpose that would kill a politician at a dozen paces.

She steps close to Anders who, for the first time since the explosion is not looking smug, he shoots her a look of pure venom.

“Anders.”

She says softly, he spits on her bare feet.

“To think I was starting to feel sorry for you, at least I knew what I was doing was dangerous.”

I marvel at that, her empathy and pity for a man who has shown her nothing but contempt and hatred. Even now he had become a murderer a hundred times over.

“Shut up you little whore! Don’t you dare try to pity me blood mage! Knife eared bitch, all you have achieved is a broken mirror and everyone you ever loved turning their back! Don’t you dare compare us, you could never understand, an insect could never understand a man, my purpose is pure, yours was just the flailing of a child.”

Aveline and I were wrestling to stand, her restraint gone as we both wanted to rip him limb from limb, Varric tried to aim Bianca but Isabela crossed his line of fire. Fenris alone was not reacting to Anders words.

She hits him.

Merrill is not strong, she is light and thin and tiny, even by elf standards, I can lift her with one arm.

Even so that punch seems to stop time, to cut through all the madness and hysteria and make us all still.

It even seems to reach through to the Anders we once knew.

He touches the little red mark on the side of his face, disbelief written over his features.

We all stare at Merrill, her hands balled into fists as she quivers in place.

“What?”

He asks in a confused voice, blinking up at her.

“Ten years of snide remarks, ten years of thinking I’m stupid or ignorant. Ten bloody years!”

Her voice is a scream, one of those screams that hurts my teeth.

She hits him again. Not a punch to the face but in the belly with her knee.

He goes down hard, unable to speak, eyes darting wildly, mouth moving in silent agony. A breathless whimper is the only noise he makes.

I manage to stand and get to her, I hold her close in a gentle hug, she is shaking in my arms and tears run down her face.

“It’s okay Merrill.”

I say in soothing tones.

“I’m not finished, just one more please.”

She whispers and I look to Aveline who nods.

I let her go and she steps towards Anders, who stares up at her, fear and madness in his eyes.

“Anders.”

Her voice shakes with anger.

“You are just a foul, evil, overused, worn out, disease ridden stinking cunt!”

There is a surprised gasp from Isabela and we all stare as Merrill walks back to me.

“One last thing.”

She says sweetly.

She turns and runs at him then kicks him hard.

He goes down hard, hands clutching between his legs as he vomits, he screams wetly then pukes more.

She turns from the howling, vomiting pathetic wreck of a man, her face still showing anger.

“Better now?”

I ask softly.

“I see why you guys like doing this so much.”

She says, her voice nearly back to her normal sweet tones.

“Now, where is Fenris, I think that little punk insulted me as well.”

There is a rattling of armour as the white haired elf flees.


End file.
